Have you met the interns yet? They're pretty amazing. The following post is from Kristin Caldwell. She's a graduate of Central Washington University and is becoming an expert at navigating public transportation in the city.
Over the past couple of months, a song that has continuously encouraged me is Oceans by Hillsong United. The lyrics of this song talk about how God calls us to walk with Him into the unknown, and that if we call upon His name and keep our eyes fixed on Him, He will lead us to do things we would never be able to do ourselves. My favorite line of the song is "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders/Let me walk upon the waters/Wherever you would call me." These simple phrases hold such power.
My first experience of hearing God calling me to do something was Him asking me to confess a sin to my mentor at the time that I had never shared with anyone before. It was probably the scariest thing I'd ever done up til that point, but it brought so much freedom and healing into my life as a result. I think hearing from God very much includes obeying Him in what He calls us to do. There is action required. My experience has been that the more that I obey, the easier it becomes to identify His voice because I learn what His voice sounds like. And the things He has called me to obey Him in have gradually become bigger and bigger.
A few years later, I was journaling in my room alone with God, when all of a sudden I randomly had the thought that I should share what I had written down during the Chi Alpha group meeting that night. Every week during the worship time at Chi Alpha, the worship leader invites students up to share if there's anything that God has put on their heart. I had never done it, and quite honestly, hoped I never would. Public speaking in any form has always terrified me. And yet when I got this impression from God to share, I knew that's what I had to do. I tried to make excuses, but I also knew that I would regret not obeying the nudging.
And so that night I went up to the front and took hold of the microphone. I read the scripture, shaky voice and all, and somehow managed to share everything I felt I needed to share without notes. I don't know whether or not my words made a difference in someone's life that night, but my biggest satisfaction was in knowing that I had been obedient to what God had called me to do at that time.
Since then, there has only been one other time that God has nudged me to share something at a weekly Chi Alpha meeting. But He has stretched me in trusting Him in more other ways than I can count. When I graduated from college, I struggled to find a job before I found a nanny job with long hours and low pay. When the kids were getting ready to go back to school, I struggled again to find consistent work. It was then that God provided me with a job at exactly the right time, and in the type of place that I had been hoping for. A few months later, I went to World Missions Summit, an event I had been looking forward to for nearly four years, ever since I had any idea what it even was. It was there that God called me to do the internship. Naturally, I assumed that I would be going back to Central Washington University. When I found out that, no, that's not where I would be headed, I was devastated. And yet that's what God used to bring me to DC. I'm still not sure how God convinced me to move across the country, but all I know is that He is the one who made it happen. I still have no idea how all that support came in as I struggled to raise such a high budget my first time going into ministry. Somehow He did. And now that I'm here, I'm amazed at how fast I have been able to adjust. There are definitely still things that frustrate me and confuse me about this campus and this type of ministry, but that's okay. God is showing me how much He loves these students and how desperately He desires for them to love Him too. And somehow, I trust that He is using me in the lives of others, even when I might not see it. All that I can really do is keep trusting Him, praying that He will give me a trust in Him that is without borders.
